MESA, AZ — Being in the real estate business, Rikki Cole is never far from her phone. But lately, she'd like to be.
"Calls all day from 8-5, Monday through Friday," Cole said.
She says most are not business calls.
Beginning sometime in March, Cole says people were calling and leaving their insurance information.
She says she's had hundreds of calls and messages left in her voicemail.
Callers said they received letters after visiting Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa or another facility owned by Steward Medical Group.
Cole says one caller relayed to her what the callback number on the letter was... and it was hers.
"It's super frustrating for me, super annoying," she said.
Cole's main concern is that callers think they're relaying valuable information to their hospital.
They are not, and much of it is very personal.
"It's their Medicare number, their name, their full date of birth, address, what they were seen in the hospital for," Cole said.
She says she repeatedly contacted Mountain Vista and Steward Medical Group but says no one seemed interested.
And the calls continued.
"All I want is for the hospital to let these people know they're calling the wrong number. Send out a new letter," Cole said.
When she contacted Let Joe Know, we contacted Mountain Vista and Steward by email and phone.
Is Mountain Vista sending letters with the wrong number? If not them, then who?
Like Cole, we couldn't get any answers. So, we went to Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa.
That also led to nowhere.
Then, we got a breakthrough.
After reaching out to one of Cole's callers, they sent us a copy of the letter they received, and there was Cole's phone number used for callbacks.
While the letter does say Mountain Vista Medical Center, it comes from Elevate Patient Financial Services.
We contacted them and told them about the mistake and Cole's frustration in trying to stop this.
Elevate said they would investigate.
In a follow-up email, Elevate Patient Financial Services wrote:
The situation has been addressed. The matter was investigated, and steps were immediately taken to ensure that Ms. Cole's number would not be sent to any other patients. Individuals who were provided Ms. Cole's phone number in error were contacted and provided the appropriate phone number via telephone last week and by letter this week.
"It was you and your team that was the catalyst," Cole said.
After all of the calls and hours of pushing for answers, Cole says this "weird" thing she has experienced since March, is finally over and she can answer her phone again.
"So, it was a very big typo that had a massive impact on a random stranger," Rikki said.
We asked Mountain Vista Medical Center if they had investigated Cole's concerns months ago, and we asked Elevate Patient Financial Services how the misprint could have happened.
Neither business replied by our deadline.
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